


You, me... us

by Chesshire



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cardio goddess, Cristina is in love, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Not Beta Read, Teddy Altman loves Cristina Yang
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:13:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29970339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chesshire/pseuds/Chesshire
Summary: Cristina Yang calls Teddy Altman to help her to perform an epic surgery: a 3D printed heart to save a patient. While working together, the two doctors discover their feelings for each other.
Relationships: Teddy Altman/Cristina Yang
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	You, me... us

**Author's Note:**

> Hello you! English is not my first language, so sorry for my grammar mistakes.  
> I hope you like this short story about Cristina Yang and Teddy Altman getting together because, well, they are badasses cardio goddess and they deserve better than Grey's Anatomy gave them.
> 
> Talk to me in the comments!

It feels agonizing. It feels exhilarating. In one moment, it is as the whole world is crashing down around her. When she fell in love with Teddy Altman? When she started to feel this way?

Sleepless, Cristina Yang rolls on her bed after performing a surgery for more than 26 hours. It was an extraordinary case, so she needed extraordinary people around her. Therefore, she called doctor Theodora Grace Altman two months ago. To her surprise, Teddy left Germany to meet her in Switzerland, where Cristina is the Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Klausman Institute, in Zurich.

Over the years, since Teddy left Seattle, Cristina did not realize how much she missed her former mentor, her daily good humor, her brilliance, her smart mouth, their sync while working together in the OR. Her smile. 

Cristina throws her head on her pillows and laugh. It has been a long time since she laughs like that, freely but with an undertone of disbelief. They worked together for so long… it should have happened before, in Seattle, right? Why now? Why… She does not know. She doesn’t know and, for the first time in a long run, she does not care.

Although, after those intense two months of preparation to being able to operate a patient with a 3D printed beating heart, after the surgery of her life, there she is, in her bed, under a pile of blankets because the winter almost never ends there, and thinking about Teddy’s smile. About the way the other doctor wrapped her into her arms and cried tears of joy and pride.

“You did it, Cristina. You did it!” Teddy whispered into her ear.

“No! No… we did it… we! It was not possible without you here, without…”

“Shh! You used to be better at taking compliments, doctor Yang. So, let’s be honest here. YOU did it. It was your project, I was just a support and…”

“Oh, shut up, doctor Altman! I’m not good at this, okay? Just take it, because here I am, Cristina Yang, after the surgery of my life, saying that it wouldn’t have happened without you. Take these words, I won’t repeat them,” Cristina laughed and Teddy joined her.

Suddenly they were at the corridor, in front of the OR, sitting on the ground, laughing about anything and everything, crying and exhausted. 26 hours…

“We should go home, take a shower, eat something and sleep. Gosh, I need to sleep. But I’m starving…”

“Let’s go to your house, let’s start from it. We’ll see what we do after that,” Teddy winked and got on her feet, helping Cristina to do the same.

When she asked for Teddy’s help, Cristina offered accommodations in her house to the other surgeon. It did not make any sense to let her former mentor living in a hotel room while they worked together. It was how they ended up sharing a house, meals, insomniac nights, memories, and knowing each other better, as they could not do in Seattle.

Cristina takes her phone, it says it’s almost noon in Zurich, what means around 3:00 am in Seattle. Damn it! Meredith is probably sleeping and wouldn’t be fair to wake up her in the middle of the night to talk about, what?!, her crush on Teddy?!

“Shit!”

It is not a crush, and she knows it. Cristina Yang does not fall in love so often; it is rare when someone get her attention, interest, and affection. Let alone to make her miss a smile. Like Teddy Altman does.

Cristina gives up on sleeping and goes downstairs, to her kitchen. She opens the fridge and it is miraculously well stocked. Thanks to Teddy, for sure. She takes a bottle of apple juice and a lasagna to put on the oven.

While she waits her meal to roast, Cristina writes tons of messages to Meredith and delete all of them. She does not know even how to start an eloquent text. Nevertheless, how she is supposed to do that? How she can explain her feelings? God, it sucks and Cristina is a big fucking mess right now.

The surgeon is so into her own world that she misses the soft steps down the stairs.

“Hi…”

Cristina is startled by Teddy's arrival and drops her cell phone on the table.

“Jeez!” She covers her face and takes a deep breathe.

“Oh my God, Cristina, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to startle you, I thought, I mean… I wasn’t exactly silent coming here, but…”

“No, Teddy, it’s okay, it’s fine… I-I…”

The blonde doctor takes her hands and sits by her side. 

“Couldn’t sleep too?” She asks softly.

“Yeah…” Cristina giggles. “A lot is going on my mind right now,” she looks at Teddy and a funny thing happens on her stomach when the other surgeon smiles to her.

It is not her usual nice smile, or the one she offers to her patients. No. It is a warmer, more intimate smile and it hits Cristina hard.

“Where is that fancy champagne bottle we brought?” Teddy asks all excited and beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

“What? Now?” Cristina loves the idea.

“Why not? You just stepped out of the OR after the most revolutionary surgery successfully performed on the cardio field in years or decades, Cristina Yang. So, yeah, you deserve a toast. You deserve a celebration!”

How she can say no to that? How she can deny that sparkling eyes, that warm smile, that happiness aura around Teddy?

“We deserve it! Okay, you take the glasses, I’ll take the champagne. We should move to the dining room with the lasagna too.”

“Sounds like a plan!”

Teddy can barely contain her will to just take Cristina in her arms again, as she did in the hospital. However, she cannot blame the adrenaline post-OR, so she is not sure about how Cristina would react. If she would be welcome again.

The ex-soldier just smiles watching that woman, wearing plaint pajamas, used to be called cold, calculist, selfish, not able to connect with patients. How wrong they were about her. Because Teddy always saw behind the barriers that woman put around herself.

The surgeon knows how much Cristina cares, how much she is able to give all of herself to save a life. It does not matter how much time goes by, Cristina will always be the most brilliant partner she already have operating by her side. No one can compare to her in the OR and Teddy knew it since Cristina was an intern. Her intern.

“Teddy?” Cristina calls from the dining room.

“I’m going!” She shakes her head. Teddy cannot let those feelings come to the surface.

“We need…”

The words disappear from Cristina’s mind. Was she blind? How she did not take notice of that blue satin nightgown wrapping Teddy’s body so perfectly it should be illegal? Cristina feels so overwhelmed, all of a sudden, that she has to hold on to the wall not to swoon. For a good thirty seconds, she even forget to blink, until Teddy snaps her out of her reverie.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah… yes… I’m just… We need plates and forks…” She says while her heart tums louder and louder into her chest.

Finally, they move to the dining room and Teddy opens the champagne. They laugh together because they know they made history. And because it is so easy to be themselves around each other, to exist around each other.

“A toast…” Teddy raises the glass.

“A toast…” Cristina mirrors her.

“To you!” Teddy says.

“To us!” Cristina responds so certain that Teddy shivers. For a second, she allows herself to believe everything is possible.

“To us…” Teddy whispers.


End file.
